The modern communications era has brought about a tremendous expansion of wireline and wireless networks. Computer networks, television networks, and telephony networks are experiencing an unprecedented technological expansion, fueled by consumer demand. Wireless and mobile networking technologies have addressed related consumer demands, while providing more flexibility and immediacy of information transfer.
Current and future networking technologies continue to facilitate ease of information transfer and convenience to users by expanding the capabilities of mobile electronic devices. One area in which there is a demand to increase ease of information transfer relates to the delivery of services to a user of a mobile terminal. The services may be in the form of a particular media or communication application desired by the user, such as a music player, a game player, an electronic book, short messages, email, content sharing, web browsing, etc. The services may also be in the form of interactive applications in which the user may respond to a network device in order to perform a task or achieve a goal. Alternatively, the network device may respond to commands or requests made by the user (e.g., content searching, mapping or routing services, etc.). The services may be provided from a network server or other network device, or even from the mobile terminal such as, for example, a mobile telephone, a mobile navigation system, a mobile computer, a mobile television, a mobile gaming system, etc.
Due to the ubiquitous nature of mobile electronic devices, people of all ages and education levels are now utilizing mobile terminals to communicate with other individuals or contacts, receive services and/or to share information, media and other content. Additionally, given recent advances in processing power, the availability of peripherals such as global positioning system (GPS) receivers and the development of various applications, mobile electronic devices are increasingly used by individuals for highly capable services that consume significant on-board resources. Furthermore, mobile electronic devices are also becoming popular mechanisms by which users communicate with each other and consume content.
Although the capabilities of mobile electronic devices with respect to acquiring and rendering content, enabling communication and providing services continue to improve, the fact that such devices are mobile and the market driven desire to keep such devices relatively small inevitably introduces challenges with respect to limits in battery life and processing resources. While battery life continues to improve, the pace of expansion of complexity and processing load is at least even with, and in many cases exceeds, the pace at which battery life improvements are realized. Thus, significant usage of a mobile electronic device for the services and functions described above may typically consume battery power quickly and end up forcing the user to frequently recharge the battery or limit their usage, which degrades the user experience. These limits on user activity have been frequently cited in user polls as being common problems that users report encountering.
Accordingly, it may be desirable to address some of the issues described above.